yo yo's (the fabric, cloth ones)

Subject: yo yo's (the fabric, cloth ones) Tue Jul 31, 2007 2:15 pm

Does anyone do crafts with those cloth yo yo's? I never paid any attention to them before, but on the Country Living magazine website it shows a little video of someone making them, and it sort of caught my interest. I am so in the mood to make them now. But - am not sure what to make with them if I make a bunch of them.

I was figuring placemats would be a good place to start. I actually do need some, so why not make some. I could make seasonal ones. I saw you can make a throw blanket or quilt, but with the little holes in the middle I worry they could so easily get caught on something they might not be that pracitcal. Small yo-yo's could make nice bookmarks (sewing a few in a long strip). I was thinking small or medium ones could maybe be sewn to trim pillow cases with??

But I was wondering if anyone has made or used them, and if so, for what craft projects.

If anyone is interested, here is the link of the video I watched, when you get to their website, look at the very right of the webpage and it says something like "country video - making fabric yo-yo's"

http://www.countryliving.com/

I think my daughter could maybe make some too. Oh, one thing I saw on a website was making garland with yo-yo's - like to trim a Christmas tree with, but you could probably make it to trim anything with, even hang and decorate for like a party or something.

Subject: Re: yo yo's (the fabric, cloth ones) Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:19 pm

Good Lord, I had no idea they had a name!

We used to make them when I was little, for making the arms and legs of rag-dolls from, strung on a long string tight together like the garlands you mentioned.

And a whole load strung tightly together made a snake also, as I recall.

I've never seen them used for anything except garlands and had never thought of using them flat.
I think if I wanted to make piecework placemats I'd probably just use very simple patchwork, the random kind of hexagons, and a wholecloth backing with a layer of wadding inbetween for insulation. It seems a lot of effort to go to, to make these for using flat!

laura
p.s. I had no idea either that CL was an American thing as well! I've been reading the British magazine for decades, even when I was a biker-rock-chick in my teens and twenties, hiding it in case anyone saw it!!!

Subject: Re: yo yo's (the fabric, cloth ones) Thu Aug 02, 2007 4:06 pm

I would love to make quilt placements ~ well, I'd love to make a big bed quilt, actually. But I don't have a sewing machine. I'd dare to try and sew all the squares together by hand, but when it comes to adding the batting and the backside, I figure I'd really need a sewing machine.

I have found these two sites online so far using yo-yo's:

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/sewing/yo-yo.shtml

http://ccloveneighbors.blogspot.com/2007/04/angel-yo-yo-craft.html

Subject: Re: yo yo's (the fabric, cloth ones) Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:50 pm

Sylvie, my great-grandmother doubled the family income (my gr-grandfather was a coal-miner and they had seven children to feed!) by hand-sewing Durham quilts (in County Durham!) in the early 20th century, entirely by hand! Mind you she had a huge frame to hold it all and my Nana could remember playing under it as a tot!

You could easily do placemats by hand though! I often make things by hand because my sewing machine has lots of lovely vintage pots with plants in and decorative coloured glass bottles and a clock and so on, on top of it and it takes ages to excavate the thing out! So I just grab a needle and thread and sew by hand instead!

laura